Swedish trotting giants join Aldebaran Park

Maharajah and Calgary Games, two of the greatest trotters ever produced in Sweden, will be available to Australian breeders via frozen semen this season from Aldebaran Park.

Both standing at Menhammar Stuteri, near Stockholm, the celebrated duo represent the best bloodlines in Europe.

Maharajah, a son of the Italian-bred star Viking Kronos, won 31 of his 59 starts including eight Group 1’s and four Group 3’s and $3.8 million in stakes.

Among his successes were the European and Swedish Derbies, the Grand Prix d’Amerique, the Grand Prix de Belgique, the Olympic Trot and the Swedish Travkriterium.

At stud, Maharajah has enjoyed spectacular success ever since his first crop raced in 2013. Last season he topped the Swedish sires’ list for the sixth consecutive year and set a new benchmark for progeny earnings in a single season with a record $8.4 million.

He is again the leading sire this year by a wide margin with $7.7 million.

Maharajah was also the leading sire in 2024 in Italy for the second consecutive year after Varenne won the title 13 times in a row and climbed to the top in Norway and Finland.

He has sired no less than 10 millionaires and the winners of a multitude of open age features and major age classics throughout Europe.

Acclaimed as the “best trotter ever bred in Sweden”, Calgary Games was undefeated in 10 appearances in his homeland as a three and four-year-old.

Unbeaten in three starts at three, Calgary Games took his career to a whole new level at four, winning his only six appearances and he was subsequently voted the 2021 Swedish Horse of the Year and 4YO of the Year.

He put an exclamation mark on his career when he captured the $800,000 Swedish Derby at Jagersro, covering the 2640 metres in a 1:55.2 rate – a new world record for a four-year-old trotter on a five-eighths track.

One month later, Calgary Games defeated the top four-year-olds in Europe in the Group 1 $400,000 European Trotting Derby at the Aby track in Sweden.

The total margin of victory in his 10 winning appearances was an incredible 51 lengths!

One of the first crop of the dual Swedish Horse of the Year and sensational sire Readly Express, Calgary Games is out of the dual Swedish Breeders Crown winner Olympia Tilly and is a close relative of Victory Tilly, Sweden’s richest trotter of all-time with a bankroll of $6 million and a world champion and twice European Grand Circuit Champion.

Calgary Games served 33 mares in North America in 2022 and left 24 foals, of which 18 have started and nine are winners with seven in 2:00.

He has served full books in his first three seasons at Menhammar Stuteri.

The service fees for Maharajah and Calgary Games are $25,000 plus GST.

Their progeny will be eligible for the Vicbred and NZ Sires Stakes series.

The Aldebaran Park stallion Skyvalley NZ, the leading colonial bred trotting sire for the last nine seasons, is headed for a breakout season.

SKYVALLEY NZ has been credited with 36 winners of 74 races and $641,937 in progeny earnings so far this year and is ranked second on the all aged winner’s list and fourth on the stakemoney table.

In September Skyvalley NZ was represented by eight individual winners including the Melton winner Floating Mountain, the three-year-olds Karbine, Skybella and She’s Sky High and the dual Pinjarra victor Sellune (Tr 1:58.4).

Other recent winners by Skyvalley NZ have been Rocky Valley (Tr 1:58.5), Kyvalley Anthony (Tr 1:59) and Madge Egan.

Skyvalley NZ also ranks as the damsire of the brilliant Melton Free-for-all winner Im Bobby, the talented two-year-old fillies Zoolu and Munny The Munster, who won a heat of the Nutrien Equine Classic and finished a close second in the $75,000 Final, the three-year-old I Am Spellbound and the Auckland, New Zealand winner Maro MacKendon.

Not to be outdone, the Muscle Hill horse Aldebaran Eagle USA weighed in with four winners for the month including the dual Gloucester Park winner Aldebaran Boyd Tr 1:57.8 – 14 wins and almost $120,000, the three-year-old filly Myheartbeatstrue, Keayang Brandy (Tr 1:59.6) and The Fiery Sunset.

Aldebaran Park bred five individual winners in the month of September.

The quintet were Aldebaran Boyd (Aldebaran Eagle USA – Aldebaran Revenue), Keayang Brandy (Aldebaran Eagle USA – I’m Princess Sophie), the two-year-old filly Aldebaran Ada (Brillantissime Fr – Aldebaran Aliza), The Fiery Sunset (Aldebaran Eagle USA – Aldebaran Sunset NZ) and the Banks Peninsula, NZ victor Aldebaran Redwood (Father Patrick USA – Another Love NZ).

The 2025/26 stud season is in full swing, and we are “Hot to Trot” at Aldebaran Park. 

As above with Calgary Games and Maharajah being available, we advise that Dancinginthedark M USA is again available this season. All are frozen semen and the service fee is payable on live foal and all are available only in Australia. All are NZ Sires Stake and Vicbred eligible.

Aldebaran Zeus is now fully settled in on farm, and his stud duties are now well underway His fresh/chilled semen will be available in Australia and NZ. He is also NZ Sires Stake and Vicbred eligible.

Along with Skyvalley NZ being available to Australian breeders with fresh/chilled semen – Vicbred eligible, Aldebaran Eagle USA is again available via frozen semen to NZ breeders. The service fee is payable on live foal and he is NZ Sires Stake eligible.

By Peter Wharton